Racial skills

Are any racial skills worth using? And if so which ones on which classes?

@Eekasqueak.7850 said:Are any racial skills worth using? And if so which ones on which classes?

No. In order to avoid race selection being significant, they are all intended to be less effective than class skills.

There was a period where the Sylvari seed turret one was really good, but it has been adjusted long since.

There's a certain fun factor you may consider. I find it hilarious pulling out a Battle Suit on my Asura. Reaper of Grenth for humans is sometimes better for Open Worlding than some class Elites as it's not a transform but an aura. I certainly think it's better than any of core ele's Elite skills for casual play.

@Eekasqueak.7850 said:Are any racial skills worth using? And if so which ones on which classes?

No, they're not.

@Eekasqueak.7850 said:Are any racial skills worth using? And if so which ones on which classes?

For the most part. No. They are mostly trash. I used to run Reaper of Grenth back in the day on my Ele (before HoT) but that was partly due to the ele elites being even worse than trash, though it was SO useful. Was so useful for my roaming build. You use to see a lot of Seed Turrets, you still some here and there but nowhere near as much. Utility and heal (iirc) they were useless and never, ever used.

in gvg you sometimes see sylvari eles using the invuln elite, roots you in place and gives invuln for a view seconds, gives your teammates time to come for your rescue when you have enemy thiefs or mesmer on you

I only even found useful the Technobabble, when I was using a build with little CC options and I needed a bit of it in some PvE situations.

Norn's have great RP elite skills :)https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Become_the_Wolfhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Become_the_Bearhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Become_the_Ravenhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Become_the_Snow_Leopard

Hidden pistol on a charr engineer.

EDIT: It's really only worthwhile because of the toolbelt skill I think.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hidden_Pistols

Most are not practical, and the few that are have horrid cool down timers. However, a hand full of them are incredibly entertaining in the right type of events. Norn Bear Form's Charge attack (and Snow Leapord's Dash Attack), Asura Golem suit, Asura Golem minions, Charrzooka, Artillery Barrage for Walmart Meteor shower, Hounds of Balthazar (against the Hounds of Balthazar), Sylvan hound when you can't find a better elite, but MistFire Wolf a lot cooler and has better attacks.

To a lesser extent, several skills can find a use in WvW for classes that don't have another skill that does something similar. Lately I've been loading Technobabble on my Spell Breaker during some tower fights, because I don't normally carry range, and that spell casters don't respond as fast to dazes since it doesn't completely lock out controls. I've successfully messed up more then a few "ledge lords" with a well timed interrupt, and even shut down a Mirage long enough to just down it. The momentary confusion has more impact then the actual skill, as they're not expecting a warrior to interrupt without a melee skill projection.

Trivia: Norn Forms change base stats.

@"starlinvf.1358" said:Most are not practical, and the few that are have horrid cool down timers. However, a hand full of them are incredibly entertaining in the right type of events."

Snip----

I agree with what you said. They do have pretty bad cooldown times, but, depending on if I have conditioning cleaning on my build, I do sometimes use "Prayer to Komir" on my humans. I hate having conditions.

I also enjoy the three racial utility skills on the Asura. Pain Inverter and Techno Babble do not last long, but, sometimes a second is all I need.

Racial skills were nerfed a while ago and are generally not worth slotting over most profession skills. Although, there are many profession skills that are inappropriate for specific builds and situations. A good build will not benefit from a racial skill as much as from a good choice of a profession skill.

However, if your toon is at least L31 but not yet high enough for an elite skill in PvE, Mistfire Wolf can be a huge help and any race or profession can benefit from it.

@"Cifrer.6013" said:Hidden pistol on a charr engineer.

EDIT: It's really only worthwhile because of the toolbelt skill I think.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hidden_Pistols

if in wvw core necro would be viable id play hidden pistol as mobility skill, its a leap and evade on 15s cooldown ^^

technobabble is an instant cast fairly long daze, so it can be usefuland take root gives you invuln, and the plants it summons do some ok bleeding damage, so it can be good too

@reikken.4961 said:technobabble is an instant cast fairly long daze, so it can be usefuland take root gives you invuln, and the plants it summons do some ok bleeding damage, so it can be good too

Dont forget the root and panic strike combi on thief, dunno if they changed it but it stacked a dozen stacks of poison in seconds.

They're just flavor, and coming from WoW where racials skill have an impact in both competitive PvP and sometime even raiding (MoP's Troll exodus for example)., this is something i'm really happy about.

• [human] Prayer of Dwayna: In PvE for being one of the more-powerful healskills. Toolbelt (engineer) is a ground-target aoe heal. Cooldown is a bit high, but compared to other healing-skills, especially for leveling an engineer or other classes with weak healskills, it is nice to use.
• [human] Prayer of Kormir & Lyssa: Cleansing debuffs. The toolbelt (engineer) skills work exactly like with Prayer of Dwayna, ground-target aoe. They come in pretty handy if you have to cleanse a lot.
• [human] Hounds of Balthazar: Although the cooldown is pretty high, it is nice to have some real adds who can eat damage and take aggro. Especially in places like HoT.
• [charr] Warband Support: Same as Hounds of Balthazar. I like to use it on my charr-mesmer which looks like I can summon 5 clones instead of three.
• [charr] Battle Roar: Used it in a few support & burst builds. The cooldown is meh, but it is a reliable fury source.
• [asura] Golems: Same as Hounds of Balthazar & Warband Support, but better cooldown.
• [norn] Bear Transformation: To withstand/survive lethal attacks.
• [sylvari] Take Root: Same as the Bear Transformation.

When I create a new character, I always think about what racial-skills might suit to that class. In most cases I pick human, because of the heal & cleanse abilities.

I had some great times with become the snow leopard on my warrior when roaming wvw. But that was years ago.

Sometimes I like to mess around with the sylvari oakheart summon elite in WvW. People are so unused to what a stationary piece of garbage it is that they actually neglect to avoid its immobilize. And it pulls your conditions.